As The Snow Falls
by fireyred
Summary: We all know the bits and pieces of what happened the three years Allen spent with Cross, but what about the big picture? Characters belong to Katsura Hoshino.
1. Chapter 1: Colors

Chapter 1: Colors

The white snow continued to fall, even after the fateful event that just occurred. The snow blended into the newly colored hair of the twelve year old boy that leaned against the cross-shaped tombstone. Clear, salty tears fell from the boy's grey eyes as he sobbed and wept to the white ground. It seems as though the only color for miles was the red of the boy's arm and the blood that was running down his left cheek.

Hiccups and sobs rang through the air, until another sound joined in. When the boy heard the new sound, he silenced himself and looked up, but only to see what was making this crunching noise. What caught his eye was a familiar color. The color red adorned the older man's head and striped across a bone-white mask that covered half of his face.

The man kneeled down to the boy's level, but by then, the boy looked back down to the frozen ground. The man with red hair started talking, but only gibberish made it to the boy's ears; he understood nothing of what the man said.

Then, the boy heard the man ask something, "Do you wish to become an exorcist?"


	2. Chapter 2: The Start of a Legacy

Chapter 2: The Start of a Legacy

The dust rose up into the air and formed a small cloud as the boy rubbed the bottom of his boots against the ground. The boy Allen sat stationary on the hardwood bench as he watched, intrigued, by the rising and settling dust. Allen also wondered how it could be so dusty in this room, didn't anybody sweep? But kicking dirt up into the air was something that truly entertained Allen. He would always do it during Mana's shows, because he was unable to do the juggling and balancing acts that Mana did constantly.

The large room was alive with an assortment of noises and sounds. Yells, the clanking of glass, liquids spilling from said glasses, fists pounding into wood, and many more indescribable babblers. Allen looked up from the settling dust, to the red-haired man that introduced himself as General Cross Marian. Instead of sitting at the many tables, like all the other people were, he was leaning back against the bar sipping at a glass that was much more sophisticated than all the mugs that were being drunken from in the rest of the room. Allen noticed that the man's visible eye kept shifting from face to face, rather quickly, too, and kept a stoic look on his entire face. It looked to the boy as if the man was either looking for someone to associate with or looking for someone to avoid.

Cross' eye then landed on Allen looking back at him. Allen's eyes widened by a fraction, waiting for how Cross would react to Allen looking at him. Cross' face soon twisted into a small sneer which made the small boy cower and swiftly look back down to the floor.

Allen started kicking his legs once more, making the dust rise. After a few seconds of not hearing something from the man, or feeling anything, the boy took the option of looking up again at the mysterious man. First, he stopped moving his feet, letting them hang limply and barely touching the floor. Next, he slowly and cautiously turned his head to the side and up, to face the man. Allen was still terrified of looking the man in the eyes, so all he could do to prevent that was to gaze through his snow white locks. His eyes strained at the extreme side glance, but the muscles quickly adjusted so that it wasn't bothering him as much.

Cross was again sweeping across the room with his visible eye, taking gentle and small sips from the red wine. Allen has been wondering, these past couple of weeks, about that eye. Not really the visible one, but the other eye as well as the half of his face that was covered in the white and red mask. But Allen never dared to ask the older gentleman. He was told to by Mana that it was impolite to ask questions about something disturbing unless the subject was brought up by the person. And looking at that mask made Allen think that something terrible must have happened, in order for him to have to cover up half of his face. But, for all Allen knew, it could have just been a disguise to lure women that prefer the wild, bad boy.

Unfortunately, once more, Cross' eye found Allen's, as he was starting to light up a nice cigarette that would unwind him a bit. His eye narrowed as he realized that that boy continued staring unashamed. Cross pushed himself off the bar and started walking over to the small boy sitting on the bench of the almost empty table. Allen's gaze continued to follow the red-haired man as he approached the hunched boy.

Cross stood in front of the petite lad, who had his face down toward the ground, but his eyes were focused directly on the man. Cross stared down, though not declining his head, at the boy, eyes still narrowed with frustration. "What are you looking at, brat?" He questioned. "Why are you staring at me?"

Allen stayed silent, staring up at the elder with innocent, grey eyes that held nothing but confusion. Allen had remained silent throughout this trip. The only words that Cross was able to get out of him were his name and some jumbles on that first night. Other than that, Allen remained perfectly quiet, because he didn't know what would make this man angry.

"Are you bored?" Cross questioned again. "Is that what's bothering you, idiot?"

Allen quickly nodded his head once, indicating that he was indeed bored of the lifestyle that Cross lived.

Cross lifted up the cigarette to his lips and breathed in the smoke and toxins. He turned his head to his right, looking over the many heads and at the visible support beams that were holding up the floor to the story above them, as he blew out the smoke and looking as if he were deep in thought. After he inhaled again, this time the air from the tavern, he reached into one of the many inside pockets of his coat. Allen started to feel some concern as he watched the man scrounge around for something. Allen wasn't sure what Cross kept in his coat, but there was a time when Allen was walking next to him and saw a large revolver strapped to his leg. This discovery made little Allen skeptical of what else the General was hiding.

After a few moments of digging, Cross pulled something out that was about the size of his hand and tossed it to the surprised twelve-year-old. Allen looked down at it with curiosity in his eyes. It was a deck of cards with a black-and-white diamond pattern on the back. Allen sifted through the fifty-four cards as Cross walked back to his place at the counter. After checking that all the cards were there, Allen then turned around to face the table and took out the two jokers before shuffling the deck. Allen had noticed that his left arm had become very stiff and very hard to move after the incident, but he thought, as he shuffled, that this might help him regain the feeling back in that limb.

Allen then began spreading the cards out to begin a nice game of solitaire.

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AN: Hi everyone! And thanks for reading the second chapter of As the Snow Falls. I'm sorry that this came out later than I expected, but at least I got it out.

I would like to specifically thank the people who reviewed (Kazuki-kun is an A and an A, and Sephant), those who added this story to their alert list (Kazuki-kun is an A and an A, Sephant, Chiko100, and Lady My), and the one who added this to their favs list (Kazuki-kun is an A and an A). Thanks so much for those reviews and everything, they really made my days.

Thanks again for reading, and please review!! (hearts and hugs) (and maybe cookies)


	3. Chapter 3: Stealing, But Not Quite

Chapter 3: Stealing, But Not Quite

Allen's hand and arm were becoming quite flexible now, with the many hours playing with the cards. The many hours of labor didn't hurt either. Allen was now starting to wonder where all the hard earned money that he made went as soon as it touched the General's hands. It always seemed as though all the money had disappeared during the night, forcing Allen to work twice as hard the next day.

Though Allen did find a way to double, triple, even quadruple his earnings: At the poker table. It turned out that young Allen had quite the poker face and skills (aka sleight of hand) to help him. It also didn't hurt that all the men hadn't expected a cute, twelve-year-old boy to wipe out their pockets. The young boy thought that if he continued to do this, and not have Cross find out about it, he would be able to pay for his own things: Buy his own food, clothing, maybe even a room very far away from where Cross was staying.

But alas, fate has always been cruel to Allen Walker. Cross found out from one of the town pubs that his student was cheating people out of their hard earned money. The next night, Allen reluctantly gave the man all the money that he earned that day.

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AN: I am really sorry for the very late and short update, but this is all I can do for now and I won't give excuses. All I want to say is that I'm really pissed off at a few things and I truly have no inspiration for this story. To be honest, I have no idea when the next chapter will come out, and for that, I am very, very sorry. I would love to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter:

Kazuki-kun is an A and an A  
Blue Nariko  
Vampy  
Ican'tDENYyou

Thank you so much, you all get many, many cookies.

I also want to thank the people that added this story to their alert/fav:

Twilight Red Tammy  
Kaiamara  
Ican'tDENYyou  
Blue Nariko  
Equalibriem  
Flying Through Infinity  
Pin wa Naosu  
The-Sponge-Who-Could-Fly  
fluffysnowgirl  
what the gaaah

Again, thank you so, so, so, so, so much. It makes me so happy to know that people read my stories and take the time to tell me what they think. If you review, or anything else, for this chapter, you shall receive a brownie (and I make some pretty mean brownies).

I would like to tell you about a new DGM story that I'm working on. It's called Tallyand the first chapter should be up later this week, but I'm not making any promises. It is going to be a story that includes most of the characters, as well as a few OCs and will take place in the present. I would really appreciate it if you read the first chapter when it comes out.

Ok, that's all. Thanks again and I'll talk to you later!


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